Method and means of making striped rubber products



'9 w J. JQHNSQN 5 11332 0318 METHOD AND MEANS OF MAKING STRIPPED RUBBER PRODUCTS v Filed Feb. 15, 1.935

Patented Nov. 29, 1938 METHOD AND MEANS OF MAKING STRIPED RUBBER PRODUCTS John Herbert Johnson, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Application February 13, 1935, Serial No. 6,401 In Great Britain February 21, 1934 6 Claims. (CI. 1813) In the manufacture of rubber products of forms produced in continuous lengths such as tubing and various forms of strips, it is desirable to produce same in a vari-coloured design, and the principal object of this invention is to provide a simple but effective method and means for placing stripes of coloured rubber material upon the surface of a continuous strip of rubber material extruded from a forming machine in such a manner that the coloured strip will be an intimate and homogeneous part of the main member.

The principal feature of the invention consists in shaping vulcanizable rubber material into strips of a desired cross sectional form and applying in an undulating path to the surface of the strip, a secondary strip or strips of rubber material of a contrasting colour to be intimately and homogeneously united therewith while the channels communicate with a passage 8 leading to the outer face of the head.

A conical shield It is arranged to cover the channels 3 and is provided with a central opening H which is of the shape of the strip to be extruded.

A die I2 is arranged in the head 5 and has an elongated smooth central orifice l3 therethrough which corresponds in shape to the opening H in the conical shield, and channels M are formed in this die at the inner end which form continuations of the channels 8 and open immediately adjacent to the opening H in the shield.

Connected with each of the passages 9 is a fitting 15, preferably of elbow form, and to the outer end of each of these fittings is connected a cylinder iii in which is arranged a screw-fed plunger I? which is provided with a spindle l8 projecting from the outer end of the cylinder and main body strip is confined within the die throat. pr vi wi h m n r turning the s m The 20 A further and important features of the in Cylind t are adapted to contain a rubber Vention is to devis a means for applying th mixture which is suitably coloured in contrast striping of coloured rubber material in ordinary to the colour of the body or main strip, and the types of extruding or tubing machines, operation of the screw plunger forces this rubber In the accompanying drawing, material through the fittings l5 and passages 9 25 Figure 1 is a perspective vie f a o ti of into the channels 8 which converge to meet the tubing machine illustrating the application of a s M in t e di the present invention thereto, The feed screw 3 of the extruder device forces Figure 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional the mass of vuleanizable rubber material to form detail of the head of the machine showing the the body of the strip 130 be de o t e Conical arrangement of the extruding die therein. shield l0, and the material flows through the Figure 3 is a further enlarged longitudinal p g of. the size and S p e fin shed sectional detail of the stripe-applying die. strip- Figure 4 is an end elevational view of the The p e pp t e material contained stripe-applying die. in the cylinders I6 is such as'to force a thin rib- Figure 5 is an 1 t 1 View of t inner bon of the different coloured material through concaved conical face of the extruding head with e narrow channels 14, Consequently a thin the inner shield removed, narrow strip of rubber is laid on the surface of Figure 6 is a perspective vie of piece of the extruded strip as it passes through the openround rubber material striped in accordance with ihg H in the Shield, and the multhcolouled 40 this invention. strip is then forced through the remaining die A practical means for putting the m th d orifice, where it is crowded into embedded homoherein described into effect is shown in the aceeneous rela i n to he main body strip f mi companying drawing. a smooth surfaced striped product.

The tubing or extruding device I is of a well The Spindles 0f the p may be rotated known manufacture and the internal mecha- Slowly in any desirable manner to maintain the i thereof i erated by it m meter 2 pressure on the material contained therein sufarranged at one side. The rubber material is fed ficient to p it feeding threilgh the die orifices by spiral feed screw 3 i to a o i l recess 4 as described, but in the form illustrated the sevin the head 5, which head is secured in position eral cylinders I6 are arranged parallelly, and by a holding ring 6 which engages the annular ihllermeshihg p gears e ed on the flange '1 of th h d, outer ends of the spindles, while one of the The inner wall of the conical recess 4 is formed Spindles is p d W h a S Wheel 59. with one or more channels 8 which converge in- In order to accomplish the spiral arrangewardly to the central opening and each of these merit of colour striping the head 5 is provided with spur teeth 20 on the perimeter projecting beyond the holding ring 6 and a spur pinion 2|, suitably driven from the extruder machine, meshes with the spur teeth 20 and rotates the head at a desired rate of speed. The cylinders 56 are carried with the head and one or more members 22 fixed on the casing are arranged to engage the star wheel l9 to turn it gradually as the head revolves so that two operations are performed at the one time, that is, by rotating the head the striped strip will be twisted to present a spiral appearance and the rotation of the head to accomplish the twisting automatically feeds the striping rubber into the die.

It has not been deemed necessary to show any particular form of apparatus for applying pressure to the striping rubber material other than that herein shown, and it has been described that this pressure may be applied manually and it is within the purview of the skilled mechanic to arrange suitable means connected with the moving mechanism of the tubing machine to apply pressure to the stripe-forming material to feed same through the die in the manner described.

Further, while cylinders with separate pressure feed screws are shown for feeding in the striping rubber compound to the channels in the die, it will be readily appreciated that many diiferent forms of mechanisms may be devised to apply sufficient pressure to this rubber material to force it through the die channels.

What I claim as my invention is:-

1. Means for making striped rubber products by the extrusion process in which a main body core has a strip or strips applied to the surface thereof during extrusion, comprising in combination, means forming a body-extruding throat, a. rotating die head having a cavity or cavities leading to the body extruding throat, and means for feeding body-forming material through said throat, means for feeding contrastingly-coloured material through said cavities to be carried in a spiral path about the axis of the cavity during rotation of the die head to deposit the said secondary material in a spiral path or paths on the surface of the main extruded body.

2. A method of making striped rubber products consisting in forcing rubber material through a die, and concurrently feeding a strip or strips of rubber material of a contrasting colour to said rubber strip in the forming die, and effecting a one-way rotation of the forming die at a rate proportional to the rate of feed of said strip or strips to produce a uniform spirally striped product.

3. Means for making striped rubber products comprising a die having a central forming orifice and a plurality of channels converging thereto, reservoirs connected with each of said channels, pressure means for forcing material from said reservoirs through said channels, separate pressure means for forcing rubber material through said die, said die being rotatably mounted, and means for establishing an operative connection between said rotatable die and said first-mentioned pressure means to effect the operation of the latter at a rate proportional to the rate of operation of the said die.

4. Means as claimed in claim 3 in which said die is rotatable and supply reservoirs for the striping material are mounted directly on the rotating die head and move in unison. therewith and being connected to the respective head cavities, pressure applying means being associated with said supply reservoirs operable during their travel with the head.

5. Means as claimed in claim 3 in which the first-mentioned pressure means and the means for establishing an operative connection includes interengageable members one mounted in a stationary position and the other carried by the ro- I 

